Garden festivals
I've recently been reading about garden festivals around the world, where designers and Landscape Architects come together to exhibit innovative design installations and landscape interventions that challenge the traditional and conventional expectations of garden design. The designs often blur the boundaries of landscape design and land art. In particular, I've been researching the Festival International des Jardins held at Chaumont sur Loire in France and the Jardin de Metis held at the Redford Gardens in Quebec. The photo above is from Claude Cormier's Blue Sticks installation at the Jardin de Metis in 2000.
In contrast, a visit to the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show on Friday was, like always, an extreme disappointment. The extremely limited number of designs on show (the number seems to diminish each year) were boring and were overshadowed by the growing crowd of retail focused stalls. The garden designs exhibited the same characteristics and features that appear year after year in residential design - the boring continuing obsession with 'outdoor rooms' (including outdoor fireplaces and bathtubs) and cubic frames that rise like malnourished pergolas from the landscapes below. As a city with a strong design culture, it is disheartening to see a broadening chasm opening up between the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show and the renowned international festivals.
Shouldn't this event be challenging people's perceptions of what gardens are and inspiring people through innovative and unique designs, instead of exhibiting the same stale formula year after year?
Forgive me if I'm ranting, but Melbourne deserves better.
2 comments:
Great article Gemma,
Do you think that the problem with the Melbourne Flower & Garden show is a lack of direction or ambition by the organisers, a lack of funding, or the inability/decision not to attract innovative and fresh new designers?
I certainly agree that the show has deteriorated in recent years, which is a real shame, because there is plenty of talented designers out there missing a chance to showcase their flair.
The Melbourne Flower & Garden Show suffers from all those issues. I think the most significant problem is the lack of ambition from the organisers to strengthen and promote the design aspect, promote innovation and move away from focusing on the residential garden design or home gardening niche. Many of the other garden festivals around the world have a theme to link the designs and are on display to the public for an extended time. The lack of time the gardens are exhibited for and minimal funding is also adding to disinterest in the show from emerging designers, who may not be able to afford to exhibit their work at a show which presently offers very little publicity and minimal funding for a whole lot of work.
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